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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | MARCH 27, 2000 DEAR DIARY By George Giokas An Entrepreneur Confronts His Inner Tyrant Two blowups remind him of why he stopped working for others
In January, we hired a new recruiter. She's a very capable, professional, and friendly young woman with the right credentials. She really took a chance when she joined my editorial staffing agency because she was quite marketable. Last week, she made her first placement, and we were all very happy for her. She's now an established member of the company (which has five people), and proving herself nicely. Our relationship has been great -- so far. Then, several weeks ago, she came into my office to say that a writer she had found was increasingly nettlesome to work with. Without thinking, I raised my voice and barked out: "These [expletive deleted] writers. They just shoot themselves in the foot. I don't think we should use him again." PERSONAL VS. PROFESSIONAL. I could tell that I scared her because she stiffened, and her voice quivered when she asked a follow-up question. I immediately realized why. She was new to the company, and she'd brought in a writer who was now a problem. Also, she had seen a preview of how angry I can get the week before. I guess she didn't expect to see it turned on her without warning. Afterward, I felt badly. She was doing her job. I jumped on her without a good, professional reason. I had a good, personal explanation for why I was so short-tempered. I was whipped from working all weekend. I'm usually extremely calm and easygoing -- sometimes to a fault. Until recently, I think I've blown up twice in the five years I've been in business. But I've had only one week off the entire time -- I don't even take weekends off. It's starting to catch up with me. The previous blowup that the recruiter witnessed was a culmination of a few things. Andy, my operations manager, had been out for two days the week before that incident, so I had some extra things to handle. That should have been fine. However, by mid-afternoon, the work was piling up. Then, a payroll problem came up. Not having worked much with our new payroll system, I didn't want to screw it up. So I called Andy. For the first time that I could remember, he had turned his cell phone off. The payroll problem meant I couldn't tend to some other necessary work. I lost it. I shot a pen across the room at the payroll-system monitor. I pounded the desk and launched into a stream of Greek and English epithets. The entire office must have heard me. LOSING RESPECT. After that incident, the recruiter told me that she had heard me rant but was afraid to come in and see what was wrong. I told her I was very upset (not in those words) because I had lost three hours to the problem and couldn't reach Andy for help. I couldn't even blow off steam to him. That day too, I regretted losing my cool. The problem got solved. As the boss, I should set the standards. Sure people get mad. Nothing gets solved without a cool head, though. I broke one of my rules. When I decided to leave the corporate world, I had two defining moments involving bosses who lost it in front of me for no good reason. I remember those incidents pretty well. Even more vividly, I remember losing respect for those people. The incident with the recruiter proved to be benign. I thought the flare-up was more serious than it proved to be. (I'm usually pretty hard on myself.) The recruiter seemed none the worse for wear, and things are back to normal. I'm my usual charming self again. Still, the incident brought me up short. You can't lead by fear, only example.  George Giokas is the president and CEO of StaffWriters Plus, a specialty agency that places writers in temporary and permanent positions with corporate and other employers. It also provides editorial consulting work. His database includes 2,500 writers and editors specializing in more than 60 categories. His Web site is located at www.staffwriters.com and you can e-mail him at george@staffwriters.com  | | |
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